Specific Coupon and Shopping Info

About Me

My name is Amber Farnam and I have been photographing families in Southern Illinois since June 2012. I am located in Benton Illinois but will generally travel up to 30 miles outside of Benton. I specialize in children and family and love to photographing all the milestone of life.
I am a natural light photographer but do occasionally have sessions in my clients homes.
If you would like more information on my services feel free to email me at farnama@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Today as I was heading to the Dr I had to go through several small towns and it seemed like every where I looked were huge signs at car dealerships.

These signs all read "Cash for Clunkers"

My daughter Emeri even noted that so many sad that and thought the saying was kind of funny.

So apparently I have been living under a rock since I almost never watch commercials and had not heard of this government rebate system. Tonight however as I laid here watching 20/20 I had to watch commercials. Every commercial break I am hearing "Cash for Clunkers". So of course I had to check it out.

I found that this is a Government Car Allowance Rebate where consumers who take advantage of this program can receive a $3,500 or $4,500 discount from the car dealer when they trade in their old vehicle and purchase or lease a new one.

* Your vehicle must be less than 25 years old on the trade-in date * Only purchase or lease of new vehicles qualify * Generally, trade-in vehicles must get 18 or less MPG (some very large pick-up trucks and cargo vans have different requirements) * Trade-in vehicles must be registered and insured continuously for the full year preceding the trade-in * You don't need a voucher, dealers will apply a credit at purchase * Program runs through Nov 1, 2009 or when the funds are exhausted, whichever comes first. * The program requires the scrapping of your eligible trade-in vehicle, and that the dealer disclose to you an estimate of the scrap value of your trade-in. The scrap value, however minimal, will be in addition to the rebate, and not in place of the rebate.

My car does not qualify but if you believe yours does and need some more information be sure to follow the link to Cars.gov.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

When hubby and I got married we both worked but after we had our first baby we decided I would stay home. At the time hubby worked in the office he does now but he was only a clerk. He was at the very bottom of the totem pole so needless to say we didn't have a lot of money to work with. Thankfully working at a major insurance company we had great insurance.

We rented until our second daughter turned 2. We had been married for 6 years and although he was slowly creeping up that ladder at work his salary was still way smaller than it is now. Over the years we made a lot of sacrifices in order for me to stay at home and be with our girls.

At this point in our life we decide we needed to quit renting. Yet we were not ready to undertake a house. Instead we opted to buy an older trailer off of a friend for next to nothing. We lived there for 3 years and then hubby got a nice promotion and we were ready to take on our first house.

During that time I began learning my Do-It-Yourself skills. Granted I had always been good at figuring things out. From the beginning of our marriage I had gladly put together every bookshelf, entertainment center, baby bed, swing set and all baby toys. If we bought something that came in a box with a gazillion pieces, I put it together.

Anyway, the trailer we bought was older and I desperately wanted to freshen it up. I began painting every single room. I put up new ceiling fans and a brand new outdoor light at the front door. I even replaced the living room carpet myself but I didn't really do it correctly. Instead of going out and buying tack strips I used staples and nails. But hey, when the room was put together you couldn't even tell.

Then my mom sister and I even completely gutted Emeri's room. We put up a new ceiling a new floor and then painted it. And put up a closet organizing system across one wall since there was no closet.

Since then I haven't been afraid to try much and lately we have been doing a lot of stuff in the house we live in now.

I will be doing some more posts about doing things yourself to save money and I will be showing pictures of what we have done in our home. If you can learn to do more things on your own it will keep you from having to hire someone out to do the work for you.

Are you a Do-It-Yourselfer? Isn't there such a great satisfaction in knowing you did something on your own and saved money doing it?

Instructions:Mix all of the oils together and bottle untilready for use. On your first soak test out how much of the oil you want to use. You may want to try and just add a tablespoon at first then continue adding as you go to get your desired aroma.

To use add the oils to your warmrunning bath water and mix well. Relax and soakyourself while the oils do the work. If your stomach is bloated use a fewdrops of the oils to rub gently and directly ontothe area.

Well I have no pictures to go along with this weeks shopping. As a matter of fact the shopping was almost non-existent. With Remodel work still going on here and the girls finishing up their summer activities life is still too busy for me.

My shopping consisted of going to 2 stores, Kroger and Walgreens.

At Kroger I just picked up necessities: fruit, bread, tortillas, juice, ground turkey and lunch items for hubby. I spent a total of $26.32

Then I went to Walgreens because I had some expiring Register Rewards. In my last shopping trip I stated that I had $3 Register Rewards left but in all actuality I had $6. I forgot I had bought 2 of the free body wash that week.

Anyway, they were expiring so I went and got 2 gallons of milk and some paper towels. I spent $2.13.

So my total shopping this week was $28.45. This was super low but I have to admit that our eat out budget was over because there were a few days of pizza/drive thru instead of only 1.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

My husband just enjoyed a FREE Bacon Cheddar Roast Burger from Arby's with a coupon he received in his email.

The FREE item comes with any soft drink purchase.

Get your coupon at this link. This offer expires 7/12/09. If you attempt to visit the link after today, and it doesn't work for some reason, try changing the last 6 digits of the url (the web link) to the date (ie 07/10/09 would be 070909).

And, be sure to sign up for other great Arby's offers and free coupons by joining "Arby's Extras".

Monday, July 6, 2009

A couple of weeks ago there was a lovely little box dropped off on our porch. In this box was 4 bags of Nature Valley Nut Clusters.

Thanks to the great people of MyBlogSpark my family and I got the opportunity to try out these new snacks. They come in four flavors: Nut Lovers, Honey Roasted Peanut, Roasted Cashew and Roasted Almond.

My hubby, girls and I all tested out each flavor and we enjoyed them very much. My personal favorite was Roasted Cashew although I enjoyed them all. Hubby and the girls really liked them all. We were all fighting each other trying to make sure we got to eat some of each flavor.

They are a great combination of sweet and salty. A serving size has a calorie range of 140-160 calories which is great if you are calorie counting.

When I was shopping in Kroger the other day they were putting them on the shelf but they didn't have them priced yet so I am not sure the cost of this snack. However if you are interested in trying them out you can print out a $1 off coupon here.

1 small jar of real mayonnaise (if you managed to get this free at Target a while back then this will be really cheap for you)1/2 of an avocado

Put ingredients together in a medium bowl and squish together with yourhands until it’s a minty green color. Smooth into hair all the way to thetips. Put on a shower cap or wrap your head with saran wrap. Leave on for20 minutes.